Finally, the truth is revealed: this is clearly where the bailout money went. Below, watch a Chevy Volt promotion song-and-dance-spectacular performed earlier this month at the LA Auto Show.
The clip ends with a tag for Sunpluggers.com, which surprisingly is not about having sex outside or on boats. But who’s behind Sunpluggers? The registration info is hidden, as are all the identities of the writers, but under the “Write” section of the site it says:
Sunpluggers.com provides solar consumers with free information that we gather and report as independent journalists. We are not affiliated with any other organization.
So I guess they just really liked this Chevy Volt number? I mean, it is catchy and all, but it’s clearly not perfect because the dancers never spelled out the word VOLT with their bodies.
“The Chevy Volt Dance” [YouTube via OhGizmo!]
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What am I going to wih all this vomit…
E for Electricity; V for Chevy Volt you see…. I don’t get it.
I like the idea of the car, by the way. But this is just stupid.
EV=electric vehicle
You know, like the great EV-1 electric vehicle that GM killed a while back.
Do they explain that anytime during this “performance”, or are we just supposed to know that?
This is just adding insult to injury.
Let me state the obvious…this is marketing fail.
I’m struggling to find an audience that would appreciate this dollar store dancy party…and is over the age of six.
It’d be more entertaining if it were actually performed by those six year olds you mention!
And I can only imagine that this is going to be shown next month here at the Detroit Auto show? O. M. G.
trying to intentionally create a viral video is a guaranteed fail.
Well, it does have 200,000 views and a post on Le Consumeriste, so perhaps it’s not a total viral fail.
That 1.5-star rating, however, is emblematic of a viral fail.
Yeah, but it’s not being remembered in a good way. It’s like the Microsoft store dancing video. It just reaffirmed Microsoft’s status as the nerd of the bunch.
While there is a common belief that “all publicity is good publicity”, there is also the belief that “no news is good news”.
In this case, the video leaves a taint on the brand image. One of the primary problems GM has to contend with is the perception of product cluelessness combined with low quality (read: amateur hour). Before the thing is even on the market, they’re giving it an amateur “After School Special Rejected Us” dance party at a P.R. event? Sad.
Damnit, this fricking song is now stuck in my head. Thanks a lot, CHRIS.
How retarded! Will you buy a car just because you saw someone dance?
Yes, I am a model consumer whore. What’s your excuse?
If I looked it up correctly, the 2009 price for three ladies dancing and one lord-a-leaping is $1049.47. File me in the unconcerned category.
I am laughing a deep belly laugh at your comment.
You sir, have just officially made my day brighter. Bravo!
No, please, not again! I saw this a couple days ago and it was just too painful, I couldn’t make it even 1/4 through. Thanks for bringing back the nightmare!
Amazing, the dancing was better, but the overall presentation was more painful to watch than that recent Microsoft store dance-a-long.
Oh god. This just made me puke in my mouth a little bit.
Who is their target audience supposed to be? Housewives that find little, uplifting jingles, cute?
Just more evidence GM deserves to go out-of-business.
Uhm, no it’s not. It’s evidence that some idiot marketer though this would be cool. Why that means a long-standing American company should fail escapes me.
My guess is that he thinks there’s a relation between poor marketing decisions and bankruptcy. What a moron, eh?
Of course the real question is, “should the American tax-payer bail-out companies with poor marketing who must file bankruptcy to stay in existence?”
Let’s see…
BAD MARKETING DECISIONS: reason to fail? perhaps not but certainly not heading in the direction of success. relevant? maybe only for those who consider marketing related to failure or success.
LONG-STANDING COMPANY: reason to fail? no. reason to not fail? no. relevant to failure? no.
I want a refund!!
I stopped listening to the Beatles for this. /headdesk
Same here. I had literally just put “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” on pause before watching this. If GM had pulled off an act like that… maybe they’d have something there, but this? Lol.
I hope this show doesn’t alienate all those folks concerned with getting better value for their energy dollars when it comes to buying a smarter car.
That was a horrible presentation.
The problem is that this is acceptable to General Motors. What the hell is going on up there in Michigan?
You don’t want to know. Michigan is just scary.
Oh god yes.
Tawnie’s right,,,you don’t want to know. Michigan is like a leper colony. Stay out and be safe!
Surely, I can’t be the only one who thinks that the most brilliant tactic would be a marketing campaign with the Voltaggio brothers from Top Chef touting the Volt’s smooth ride as the brothers work on placing food on a pristine white plate.
Come on, it’s perfect!
Trust me guyz, this video is another one of them oil company conspiracies I swear it!
It’s not even good dancing…
seriously… if you’re going to spend the money, at least hire better quality dancers… I didn’t watch the entire video but I expect there were jazz fingers…
At the least a few unemployed ex-college cheerleaders finally landed a gig. Cougars unite!
I guess those gals had to resort to this because they couldn’t make it as Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
This is what you resort to when you don’t have the money to put on a *real* auto show unveiling. Seriously, this is amateur hour. I remember going to the Detroit Auto Show years ago and seeing that Jeep had built a two story tall waterfall into their display…a waterfall that SPELLED WORDS with falling water. Another year an automaker drove a car through a plate glass window as part of their unveiling presentation.
maybe they were trying to get the attention of the state that boycotted and protested the EV years ago. the state with the shortest attention span and the least likelihood of thinking of the greater good. Please, if you are from California, don’t take offense to this post, but you probably haven’t figured out what state I was referring too.
GM tried to release EV decades ago, but they were shot down as they took a business approach to the release. Now the rest of the world has past us with decades of research. The hybrids aren’t new, they have the basic concept worked out and have been using on trains for almost a century now. (first released 1912).
I’m not arguing that this video needed major FAIL action, but I’m hoping for the car to really sell. I’ve wanted a Tesla Roadster for years, and GM is to badly run to help the greater good, but we can always hope.
and when this stunning ad campaign fails…
We will have Proof that the North American public doesn’t want electric cars.
Why are they calling it an electric car – It Has A Gasoline Motor In It.
I understood those things were called Hybrids.
Did they burn all the plans for the Impact or just the cars?
This wasn’t meant to be a viral video, but a trade show attraction to draw you over to look at the product. Granted, a bad trade show attraction, but still it was not meant to be a video mem, or a massive product publicity blitz. I am sure the marketing guy who okayed this is regretting it about now.
Shouldn’t that be “PasadenER” ? This makes me want to NOT by a Chevy VOLT.
I was at the first Volt unveiling last year (Alt Car Expo). Just a couple women looking all granola and knowing NOTHING technical about the car. Still better than dancing dorks.
We already knew the bean counters at GM were incompetent, apparently the marketing department is following suit. Sadly, my 60% ownership in GM appears worthless. “Too big to fail”, Thanks Obama.
This is ridiculous and has nothing to with a car. Way to go GM. Asshats…
If they’d put on a big marketing blitz, the headline would be “GM wastes money on show.” They can’t win for losing.
Use the whole stage ladies..all of it ! I set this puppy on mute and it was semi-bearable.
BTW, who is your favorite dancer ?
People are quick to criticize the dancing, but it’s not worse than the song. The song has a very nursery rhyme-esque feel to it. Instead of the professional (*cough*) dancers, I think the song matches up better with a bunch of pre-schoolers walking around a circle, clapping, and stopping their feet.
It’s ‘on-trend’. See the Juno soundtrack for more. Also, I liked the song.
Please send me my tax dollars back used to bail your sorry butt out. Hey, am I the only watching and waiting for the blond to pull a Janet Jackson Superbowl moment?
wow. any of the 3 marketing tactics by themselves could be cool….
1-slow Jewelish popsong
2-In Living Color’s fly girls
3-breakdancing.
together, well they just don’t go together-it sucks. I hope this isn’t the archtype Chevy plans to follow…
That’s interesting, because Jewel’s music is the *only* music I’ll breakdance to. I am old school.
The lack of talent was so overwhelming, I thought I was watching a Britney Spears video. What to they plan to sell with that ad? Ear plugs?
Uh, that’s what “do” they plan to sell.
I think this song is on the Juno movie soundtrack.
Man, the song is terrible. Way to take 5 pages of marketing copy and set it to music – verbatim.